An Interference Removal Technique for Radio Pulsar Searches

TL;DR

This paper introduces a zero-DM filtering technique to effectively reduce terrestrial radio interference in pulsar search data, demonstrated by discovering four new pulsars in the Parkes survey.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel zero-DM filtering method that enhances pulsar search sensitivity by mitigating interference, with successful application in real survey data.

Findings

Discovered four new pulsars using the technique

Significantly reduced terrestrial interference in pulsar data

Validated the effectiveness of zero-DM filtering

Abstract

Searches for radio pulsars are becoming increasingly difficult because of a rise in impulsive man-made terrestrial radio-frequency interference. Here we present a new technique, zero-DM filtering, which can significantly reduce the effects of such signals in pulsar search data. The technique has already been applied to a small portion of the data from the Parkes multi-beam pulsar survey, resulting in the discovery of four new pulsars, so illustrating its efficacy.